Archives for February 2018

Water in Hawaiʻi is a public trust resource, protected under the state Constitution and Water Code. Plantations diverted many Hawaiian streams to water sugar cane and pineapple fields, drying out and destroying the native life and Hawaiian communities connected with those streams. Now that plantations are in decline, the water can be restored to the native streams.

A continued series of cases, brought by Earthjustice on behalf of our clients, has reaffirmed the legal principle of water as a public trust and methodically succeeded in restoring flows to traditional uses.